Sebastian Vettel has continued to dominate proceedings at this weekend’s Indian Grand Prix, yet again finishing atop the timesheets at the end of each of the event’s free practice sessions. The German is an almost unbackable favourite to claim pole position in this afternoon’s qualifying session.

The defending race-winner posted his fastest lap time of this morning’s one-hour session a little past its halfway point, and from that moment on, no one could come close to toppling him from top spot.

Having shown consistent race pace with heavier fuel loads yesterday, McLaren proved that it could challenge to avoid a Red Bull Racing front-row lockout by getting Jenson Button into second-fastest, just under two-tenths of a second off Vettel’s best.

Team-mate Lewis Hamilton finished up fourth-fastest in the sister McLaren, with the pair sandwiching Mark Webber on the timesheets. Webber claimed the position on his final run on soft tyres, although his session was interrupted with a spin at the final corner.

The Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa finished further down the order than most would have expected, although the Italian team was concentrating on a specific program during the session, which included each of the drivers helping the other with slipstreaming down the track’s long back straight.

Rounding out the top ten were Nico Hülkenberg, Michael Schumacher and Romain Grosjean, who complained of a lack of grip and stability in his Lotus’ handling.